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Hits, misses, and musings: 2012 Giants' Season Edition

Excerpt: "I had thought about doing a traditional “HM&M” column to wrap up the 2012 season, but in wanting to do something a little different, I instead decided to turn this into an “awards” piece that is loosely based on the HM&M format.
Take a look – and let me know what you think about the picks.

OFFENSIVE MVPThis was a tough one for me because I don’t think we can honestly say anyone really stood out as the runaway winner. But if I have to pick one guy – and yes, I do have to – I’m going to give it to left tackle Will Beatty, who despite starting out with a back injury that slowed him down, pitched quite a few impressive games guarding quarterback Eli Manning’s blind side this year.

DEFENSIVE MVPWow, another tough call, but not because there was no clear-cut winner. I narrowed this one down to two guys, both safeties. So in the end, I chose Antrel Rolle over Stevie Brown for a few reasons.One, Rolle took on another increased workload this year and save for maybe one game, he had a solid season. Two, when he spoke in the locker room, it just seemed that people responded and I really hope that next year head coach Tom Coughlin considers adding two more season-long captain spots (one on offense and one on defense) to the group and that Rolle gets one of those spots.

SPECIAL TEAMS MVPThis one was also close, as I considered David Wilson for his amazing kickoff return abilities, and kicker Lawrence Tynes. In the end though, I was looking for consistency week in and week out, and I think long snapper Zak DeOssie, who on play after play was among the first down field to make a tackle, met that criteria.What DeOssie does is not an easy feat for a long snapper to do that, but it says a lot about how DeOssie, a Pro Bowler at his position, was able to cast aside blockers and get down field to minimize the opponent’s return yardage.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
David Wilson gets the nod by a mile given his contributions on special teams and how he finally started to come on late in the year. The future sure does look bright for this young man.

BIGGEST SURPRISE
Every year when I look at the training camp roster, I start to shape my picks for whom I think will stay and who I think won’t make the cut.I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong – I’m human, after all. So I’ll admit that I had safety Stevie Brown as a guy that I didn’t think would make the final cut. Not only was I wrong about him, he actually turned out to be a pretty good safety, leading the team with eight picks for 307 yards and all but assuring himself a starting job next season.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTI’m going to go with the team concept here because I think the bigger picture is that this team wasn’t consistent, especially in the second half of the season.Whether that was a result of the coaches not adjusting and instead hoping that things would straighten out; the returning players failing to handle their success as well as they could have; or the rookies being shell-shocked at a 16-game schedule after playing 12 games in college – and I think all three factored into the equation—this team had its chances to be a contender despite the injuries that threatened to tear them apart and they inexplicably failed to come up big when they needed to down the stretch." Read more...

“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.” MB Rule # 1